[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-after-becoming-a-god-among-humans-i-just-want-to":3,"chapter-after-becoming-a-god-among-humans-i-just-want-to-after-becoming-a-god-among-humans-i-just-want-to-chapter-237":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","After Becoming a God Among Humans, I Just Want to Lie Flat",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2302376,4502,"Chapter 237: Letter of Commendation","after-becoming-a-god-among-humans-i-just-want-to-chapter-237",237,"\u003Cp>The valley looked like a crease casually scratched into the earth by a giant’s fingernail—deep and narrow, with cliffs on either side nearly vertical.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Light struggled to penetrate directly; no plants grew here, only sporadic fleshy mosses protruding from rock crevices, emitting faint phosphorescence that flickered across the faces gathered below, making them seem like floating ghosts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There weren’t many people—perhaps twenty or thirty—scattered across the flatter gravel and sand of the valley floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They wore varied attire; some favored rugged outdoor gear, but most were hooded or masked, revealing only their eyes—alert, bewildered, anxious, darting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They maintained a delicate safety distance from one another, forming a loose, wary circle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one spoke; only heavy or stifled breathing, and the occasional soft clatter of dislodged stones underfoot, broke the silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Davies stood at the center of that open space.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He emitted no aura of dominance, adopted no aggressive posture. He simply stood there, dressed in a well-tailored dark gray suit, like a professor from some university.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He did not look at anyone; his gaze seemed to pierce through the rock walls, reaching toward some more distant, more fundamental dimension. Yet this very absence of focus made every person present feel as though he saw through them—from within to without—merely scanning and evaluating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Davies finally spoke, his voice low but unnervingly clear, drowning out all the valley’s wind-whispers, directly entering each ear and even the depths of their minds: “Your presence here, by itself, proves one thing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His voice carried an odd rhythm—like the chant of some ancient ritual, or the pulse of celestial motion—calm, yet unquestionable: “You… at least harbor a precious openness toward ‘Absolute Truth.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A faint stir rippled through the crowd; someone shifted uneasily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Absolute Truth?” A hoarse male voice broke the silence, coming from a middle-aged man with an unusually muscular frame, his eyes fierce. “Stop your mystic nonsense! We came here at risk—not to listen to your sermon! What the hell did you mean in your message about ‘another path to survival’ and ‘recognized order’? Yang Yi may be insane, but her fists are strong, and her plan is sound…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sound?” Davies slowly turned his head, his dark-brown eyes fixing on the giant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man’s voice cut off instantly, as if an invisible hand had clamped his throat, producing only a faint hiss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Her plan seemed promising? Really? Hah! Like a… child trying to hold back a tsunami with wooden planks…” Davies’s lips curved into the faintest, almost pitying smile. “Courage admirable, intent lamentable—the outcome… was already sealed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He took a single step forward. That step seemed to freeze the air; the valley’s mournful wind stilled for an instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let us face the truth—the truth that terrifies you, that Yang Yi tried to defy, and that my masters… oh, perhaps you don’t yet know—there is not just one demon god. They are scattered throughout the entire universe!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hum—his words triggered an immediate uproar throughout the valley.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What do you mean?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“More than one?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fearmongering!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Davies ignored their shock. He raised one hand, palm upward—no light, no visual effects—but every mind “hummed” as if forcibly dragged into a universe sped up a billionfold:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stars were born, burned, expanded, aged, collapsed, and fell into silence;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Civilizations flared like sparks against the dark curtain, leaving brief trails of light before being erased by invisible “tides,” their energy returning to cold cycles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No good or evil, no meaning—only an eternal trend: from order into disorder. Any local prosperity defying this trend was regulated by grander mechanisms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The vision vanished, leaving only deeper coldness and a sense of void.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The universe is a living being—a living being steadily… aging.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Davies’s voice returned, pulling them back from the icy cosmic scene: “You call them ‘demon gods,’ ‘dead stars’—words steeped in fear and contempt—but they are merely the digestive and metabolic systems this living being requires to sustain its health. They are not evil; they merely silently uphold cosmic order!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And all intelligent civilizations within the universe? They are merely parasites within this life-form! They consume its energy to sustain their own populations—a process that accelerates the death of this cosmic organism!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of course, Earth alone is but a speck in the universe—but countless such civilizations expanding chaotically create ever-greater entropy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The more civilizations, the more disorder they release, accelerating the universe’s overall entropy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Their task is to periodically purge those over-proliferating, over-consuming groups that cause localized ‘inflammations’—oh, you humans call this process ‘excessive entropy increase.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Human civilization, unfortunately—or rather, naturally—has grown into such a colony requiring cleansing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This is not war, not conquest, not even malice. It is merely… a physiological adjustment.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pale or ashen faces, rigid figures—frozen, staring blankly at one another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Davies’s expression remained gentle, his unsettling eyes—now, deep within their pupils, tiny nebula-like glimmers slowly rotated, as if, when stared into, one could witness the birth and death of stars in miniature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What Yang Yi does is try to teach the ‘colony’ to fight the host’s white blood cells and digestive enzymes. The more successful she is, the faster human entropy surges due to technological explosions and awakening frenzies—marking brighter ‘inflammatory zones’ on the cosmic scale, drawing fiercer, more thorough ‘immune responses.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She is not saving you. She is reserving for you a… most agonizing, most targeted—cleansing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wind in the valley lost direction, wailing along the cliffs, swirling up scattered dead leaves and grit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A middle-aged woman, scholarly in appearance and wearing glasses, trembled as she spoke, her voice sharp with agitation: “So according to you, we… we can only wait to die? Or like livestock, offer no resistance?!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait to die? Resist?” Davies shook his head gently, as if correcting a child’s grammatical error. “You have a third option. One… permitted—even ‘appreciated’—by cosmic law itself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He paused, letting the word “appreciated” sink and ferment in the valley’s silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My masters—the beings you fear—do not delight in torment or destruction. They have no emotions; they merely execute cleaning and recycling. For a civilization that learns… to cooperate, that maintains order even at its final moment, and can actively archive its most valuable elements, they grant a certain… respect, and an exceedingly rare—privilege.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Privilege?” Another voice spoke—a thin man, his tone sharp with calculation. “What kind of privilege? A privilege to limp on?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The privilege of preserving the civilization’s spark.” Davies’s voice suddenly grew clear and resonant, like a bell striking the soul: “The privilege of saving the core of human civilization—your history, culture, science, art, your species’ genes and consciousness—from being recycled into energy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This notion struck like lightning, piercing those in the crowd who were not merely afraid of death, but carried heavier, more responsible burdens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scholarly woman snapped her head up, her eyes behind the glasses blazing with unusual light. Several others, calmer in demeanor, began breathing heavily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And the key to this privilege,” Davies’s voice dripped with seductive rhythm, “is voluntary submission. Prove your civilization qualifies for governance. Prove you understand and respect the universe’s supreme law—not like Yang Yi, inciting a futile rebellion that will draw the harshest punishment.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What must we do?” A tall, slender figure hidden beneath a hood asked, voice dry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Davies smiled. The smile remained pitying, yet now held a barely perceptible satisfaction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The first step—the most crucial: eliminate the error dragging the entire civilization toward rebellion and destruction.” He slowly uttered the name, like spitting out a poisoned thorn: “Yang Yi.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Overthrowing her is not merely about your personal survival odds.” Davies’s gaze swept over those whose eyes now burned with hope. “It is a ‘letter of commendation’—proof to my masters that within human civilization, there exist individuals sober enough, rational enough, willing to accept a higher order. When the masters arrive, these collaborators—and the civilization’s spark they select—will receive that precious privilege.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But… Yang Yi’s power…” someone murmured, fear still lingering.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Power?” Davies sounded as if he’d heard the funniest joke. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From deeper shadows of the valley, three figures emerged. They wore ordinary clothes, their faces pale, their eyes slightly vacant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But when they stood still and released even a fraction of their aura—a force utterly unlike Earth’s awakened ones, denser, closer to some primordial source—filled the air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One’s fingertip flickered a pure black flame—cold, yet seeming to burn the soul;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another’s feet caused the hard rock beneath to ripple and reshape, instantly forming a crude but powerfully primal statue;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The last merely lifted his eyes toward a section of the cliff—where rock and moss instantly aged, crumbled, and rained down as fine dust, as if millennia had passed in an instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I know him… Wycliffe! He… was only a C-rank before…” someone in the crowd recognized one, gasping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s Dorn Bruno! His ability was time—extremely rare—but he was only C-rank… could only make a blade of grass bloom! Yet now…” someone shouted in disbelief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This is ‘blessing.’” Davies’s voice fell like rain upon souls parched with longing for power: “A trivial sharing of higher-dimensional knowledge and authority—proof of the value of submission.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The last traces of hesitation in the awakened ones vanished, replaced by greed and the will to survive—or else, a noble sense of sacrifice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deep within Davies’s eyes, nebula-like light flickered soundlessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bait was cast. The net was spread.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Unite, eliminate the error, prove your worth! And then…” his voice sank, like a demon’s whisper, yet carried the solemnity of divine decree, “welcome the rebirth… of the truly awakened!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wind in the valley grew colder.\u003C\u002Fp>",1582,"2026-06-20T07:52:48.802Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","be63bc4bcd89776c83c1761616121cbbd7cafe5971389afef603147e752f805b","after-becoming-a-god-among-humans-i-just-want-to-chapter-238","after-becoming-a-god-among-humans-i-just-want-to-chapter-236",246,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fafter-becoming-a-god-among-humans-i-just-want-to-cover.jpg"]